Advice On Assessing Damages In The Early Stages of A Personal Injury Case

Keep in mind the obvious fact that every case is different. Not all of these suggested damages will apply to your specific case.

Factors to consider

• The nature of the injury
• The course of the injury
• The impact the injury could have on the victim’s ability to work
• The impact the injury could have on the activities that the victim does each day; those would be the activities that are part of daily living.

Types of damages that need to be assessed

Medical: costs of treatments given now and the anticipated cost in the future

Pain and suffering: In legal terms, this gets referred to as non-pecuniary or general damages. This should make the victim’s life more endurable. In Canada this damage award has been capped at $340,000. Furthermore, the victim’s injuries must meet a certain threshold. The injury must cause the victim’s death, permanent or serious disfigurement, or permanent/serious impairment of a physical, mental or psychological function that the victim had before the accident.

Compensation for the way that the accident has affected the victim’s income: The victim can make no claim for the first 7 days, following the accident. The victim receives 80% of his or her former income during each weekly payment.

Reimbursement for property loss: In the case of a collision, this would be the damaged vehicle. In the case of a defective product, the product that cannot be used, even though it has been paid for would count as a loss.

Questions that might be asked during the assessment of the damages

• Did the plaintiff show any negligence? If the plaintiff had been negligent in any way, that could reduce the amount of compensation going to that same individual.
• Did the plaintiff fail to mitigate any injuries during the minutes and hours that followed a given accident?
• Did the plaintiff follow the doctor’s orders, while being treated for the accident-caused injury?
• Did the plaintiff produce any witnesses?
• Did the plaintiff provide testimony from any expert?

The jury will believe an expert. A case becomes stronger, if an expert from the opposing party can be matched by an expert for the side that supports the plaintiff’s view of how the incident played out. That is one of the reasons that people tend to hire the services of an expert Personal Injury Lawyer in Richmond Hill instead of representing themselves at the trials or during settlement negotiations. That is because the insurance company always has a team of skilled and experienced lawyers to disprove your claim. Thus, with no knowledge of law, you might end up with limited or no compensation but when you work closely with a lawyer, they ensure that they help you get maximum compensation.